11-26-2016, 01:56 AM
The night of Micheal's debut at Wednesday Warfare, and shortly after Micheal ended the call with his wife Micheal walks into the bathroom of his hotel room, staring at himself in the mirror. He's thinking about what happened after he won the Heavy Metal-Weight Title. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was the worse migraine that he has ever felt. It felt like someone was literally drilling a hole in his head.
“Why did I say Dark-Weapon?...”
Micheal turns on the cold water and proceeds to splash some of it onto his face. Suddenly a voice lashes out in anger.
“You're a fraud!”
Micheal jumps, not realizing that somebody is in the room with him.
“Hello?”
Micheal peaks his head out of the bathroom, surveying the area.
“Who's out there?”
Micheal takes a step out of the bathroom before...
“Over here!”
The voice comes from behind him. Micheal quickly turns around, but doesn't see anyone.
“Look in the mirror jackass”
Micheal slowly approaches the mirror, a frightened look painted over his face.
“That's it, come now.... have a look.”
Micheal looks into the mirror to see himself, but it's not him. His reflection seems to have taken a life of it's own.
“Impossible!” Micheal exclaims with a broken and frightened voice.
“The only thing that I find to be impossible is what has became of you Mr. Graves.”
Micheal covers his ears with both hands and looks away.
“NO! Micheal screams.
“How I wonder, did you become so weak Micheal? You have returned after all these years away to do what? Defeat a pretender? At least that's what you keep telling everyone, everyone that will listen that is.”
Micheal falls against the bathroom wall and slowly slinks down it, still holding his ears trying to will this voice away.
“Do you know what I find humorous about this whole situation Micheal?”
Micheal doesn't answer, he just begins sobbing for it stop while lying on the bathroom floor.
“I find it to be utterly hilarious that you don't even realize that you Micheal, are more of a pretender than the kid you are trying to fight. You've became domesticated. You've lost your fighting spirit, and you deny what you truly are. You are not the Dark Warrior or a Dark-Weapon. You are just a sad old man, but through me you can be all that you were once more. All you have to do is accept what we are, embrace it Micheal. Remember the power that we used to wield together.”
Micheal, still on the floor screams back at this other.
“NO! This isn't real!”
“It's real alright Micheal, and you will realize that resistance is futile. You shall be mine again!”
Micheal shakes his head no in defiance of this inner voice before responding.
“Why now, Why after all of these years are you haunting me again!?”
“That's a silly question Micheal. Think about it, what do I want with a car salesman, huh? You were just a father, just a husband. You had escaped my grasp, and I didn't deem you worth my time to try and get back, but now... Now that you have returned to XWF... Now you need me.
His reflection begins to laugh as Micheal Climbs to his feet with a wild look in his eyes. Micheal stares down the reflection in this mirror. Micheal's demeanor has changed from fear to anger.
“Fuck You! This... is... not... real!”
Micheal swings his fist wildly, shattering the mirror in front of him. Blood immediately begins flowing out of numerous cuts on his fist. Micheal pulls his fist back, staring at it momentarily. You can almost see the cuts healing shut at an accelerated pace. Micheal wraps a towel around his fist and walks out of the bathroom.
Was that real? Was it just in Micheal's head? Maybe it was a dream. Yes a dream, that sounds right. Micheal wakes up in a panic. He is sitting in the back seat of a Taxi. Do these sort of nightmares occur often for Micheal? One would be inclined to answer yes. Micheal is not a shining example of mental health. Sure, he keeps his shit together these days, but everyday is a struggle.
Micheal Graves has returned to the XWF after a ten year hiatus, for the sole purpose of defeating his doppelganger Michael Graves. Micheal made his return at Wednesday's Warfare to issue a challenge to the other Michael Graves. The challenge stated that whoever wins the match, can continue to use the name and likeness of Micheal Graves. At that very same show, Micheal Graves managed to pin the XWF Heavy Metal-Weight Champion, marking Micheal's first XWF title win in 12 years.
Micheal has always had issues with his mental stability. He once even believed himself to be a vampire. Doctors claimed that he subconsciously created a world where he was a vampire to deal with everything going on in his life at the time. Ironically enough, those same mental problems are probably what saved his from becoming a tool in The Black Order all those years ago.
Towards the end of his XWF career, Micheal was kidnapped. The people that kidnapped him ran some sort of experiments on him. Whoever they were, they were trying to turn Micheal into a weapon. More specifically, they were trying to turn Micheal Graves into The Dark-Weapon:Gehenna. For a short time they succeeded, but one day out of the blue The Dark-Weapon:Gehenna went AWOL. There was a great deal of effort put into finding him at first, but eventually the mysterious group behind the weapon project moved on.
It turned out that Micheal's history of mental illness worked to his favor to break him free from the programming they had done to him. Micheal didn't take to the brain washing procedures like most do. Where it looked as though they had succeeded in programming Micheal to be their weapon, they had in fact only programmed a second personality inside of Micheal's consciousness. It was a personality that Micheal would eventually suppress, which gave him the opportunity to escape.
Micheal left the XWF, knowing that if he stuck around he would just be kidnapped and experimented on again. Instead Micheal made a new life for himself outside of wrestling. Micheal settled down and started a family. He never spoke about the experiments that where performed on him, not even to his wife. He instead convinced her that he quit the XWF because of nagging injuries. Eventually even Micheal began to believe his story. Over the years he even almost forgot about the programming and the personality that it created, but he remembers all too well now. These nightmares have been happening since he first signed the contract to wrestle Michael Graves. He hopes that they are happening because of his nerves leading into his big return, but something tells him that is not the case.
The scene opens to a dimly lit room. We see the silhouette of a man staring out a window and smoking a cigarette. In the background we can hear a radio broadcast playing. The DJ excitedly yells out the stations call letters “93.7 The Fan!”. As we listen, we learn that 93.7 The Fan is a sports radio station out of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, and that radio host Jim McKay has invited a local sport celebrity to be on the show. Micheal Graves is welcomed into the studio by Jim McKay as we begin to listen in.
“Welcome to the show Micheal”
“Thanks Jim, always a pleasure to be here.”
“It's been what, six... seven years since you were on the show last?”
“Something like that, yeah.”
“I Think the last time we had you on the show, it was our producers wanting to get a local celebrities opinion on...”
“They asked me to come on and give some insight about what goes on behind the curtain in wrestling.”
“Well that's not why you are here today. Today we are speaking with Micheal Graves about his return to professional wrestling after a ten year absence. WOW! Ten years, it's hard to believe that it has been that long huh?”
“They say time flies when you're having fun, and the last ten years that I have spent with my beautiful wife and my two children. They've been the most fun I've had.”
“Even better than winning the World Title?”
“The two don't even compare.”
“So anyway Micheal, I see that you have a championship already. Congratulations on winning the World Heavy Metal-Weight Championship.”
“Thanks Jim.”
“It was your first day back with the XWF and without even having a match, you won a championship. How does that happen Micheal?”
“Well I had just finished calling out that other Graves when I noticed two ladies fighting down the hall from me. One of the XWF crew explained to me what was going on, they were fighting over a title. A belt that is defended 24/7.”
“So you just decided to jump in and win the championship?”
“Pretty much Jim. Now at first I tried to pin Snow, but what I didn't realize was that Molly Waters had actually won the Championship already while I was standing there having the rules explained to me.”
“So you got up and chased down Molly Waters?”
“Exactly, and I hit her in the head with a frying pan.”
“Now where did the frying pan come from?”
“You know, it was just laying there on top of a box.”
“Backstage at a wrestling show, there is a box with a frying pan on it?”
“Hey, we are called the X-Treme Wrestling Federation. Hell, I was hit by a dildo later that night when Cadryn tried to take the title from me.”
“So Cadryn hit you with a dildo?”
“He says he did, but that's just because he is a dildo. In reality he chopped me across the back, and then tried to roll me into a pin.”
“Well he no need to ask who won that exchange, because here you are with the Championship still draped over your shoulder. Now let me ask you something. What do you think your chances are against “The Franchise” Micheal Graves at Wildcard?”
“Obviously I'm going to kick his ass”
Jim and Micheal shares a good laugh at Micheal's response.
“Seriously Mike, how nervous are you going into this match?”
“I'm pretty nervous, truth be told.”
Jim's voice sounds shocked by that response.
“Really!? It's strange to hear you admit that. Wrestlers are supposed to be these larger than life tough guys.”
“This has nothing to do with toughness. The fact that I haven't had a match since 2006, combined with fact that I am putting my career and reputation on the line in this match. That should be enough to shake any mans foundation a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I think (Micheal holds his fingers up to make quotations.” “The Franchise” is a joke. Ten years ago I would have squashed this kid into the mat without even putting fourth any real effort, but having been away from all of this for as long as I have. I don't know man, it's a little scary.”
“That's understandable.”
“It just means that I have to work doubly hard to win this match. I've actually been contacting a few old friends, looking for advice and help training.”
“What do your friends think about you returning to XWF after such a long time away.”
“Some think that it's awesome that I'm coming back, while others just think I'm mental.”
“What happens if you loose to “The Franchise” at Wildcard?
“I guess I'll go back into retirement like I said.”
“And if you win, what happens then? Are you planning a return to the XWF on a full time basis?”
“You know, when I first decided to challenge Michael Graves to this match, I thought to myself, I'll come back for this one match, teach this punk a lesson, and call it a career. Over the course of the last week, while training for my return and getting to know some of the talent here in the XWF. I've realized just how much I've missed this life. I don't know how much fuel I have left in the tank, but I actually spoke to Vincent Lane earlier today, and he has agreed that If I win this match, He will sign me to a full time contract.”
“Your kidding! So this isn't one and done?”
“Not if I can win.”
“So all you have to do is pin Michael Graves at Wildcard, and you will be back in the XWF?”
“Not exactly, no.”
Jim McKay sounds confused by that answer.
“What exactly does that mean?”
“My status in the XWF may not be the only topic of discussion that Vincent and I had.”
“So what else did the two of you talk about?”
“The match at Wildcard, I may have convinced Mr. Lane to add a stipulation to the match. I didn't feel like a standard wrestling match really fit into what I'm trying to do here.”
“Okay, so what's the stipulation?”
“This match is about ending somebodies career. Either I lose and I'm gone, or Michael poser boy looses and has to either change his name, or quit XWF. Either way, after Wildcard one Micheal will go on, and the other will be dead. So I convince Vincent that a buried alive match was the way to go. Not only does it make sense, since one of our careers will be over, but it also opens the door to put on a much more exciting match. It's win win for the XWF and myself. Because all of the nasty things that I want to do to this kid, they wouldn't happen in your standard run of the mill match. This kid didn't just steal my name and look. He attempted to make a complete mockery of me here in the same company that I made my name in to begin with. He came into the XWF talking about how Vincent Lane personally called him up to give him a job here. I'll tell you right now, if that story is true it's only because Vincent thought he was calling me! Then the kid gets here and runs his mouth about all this great stuff he is going to do. He talks about how he is the XWF version of Clubber Lang, then goes out and looses two matches back to back. Hell in his second match, you could clearly see that he was putting zero effort into it. Then there's his wife.”
“His wife? Don't tell me that you have a problem with his wife too.”
“I don't know if I have a problem with his wife per-say, but I do have a problem with the fact that Michael apparently writes her dialog for her. I've honestly never seen such bad acting in my life. George Lucas can write dialog that's less wooden! It really makes me question if she is even his wife, and not just some actress that he hired to put on a show with. At this point, nothing would surprise me with this kid.”
“Your disdain for The Franchise seems to run deeper than just his name.”
“You're damn right it does Jim! Listen, he comes to the XWF talking all that smack that he was spewing. Then he gets into the ring for the first time and he looses. What does he do next? He whimpers and whines about it. He refuses to accept that on that day, in that ring, he just wasn't good enough. He instead cries about cheap shots, and being screwed. No Michael you were not screwed. This is professional wrestling, it has existed for one hundred and eleven years. If you haven't learned by now, especially here in the XWF, that rules are meant to be broken. Then your just an idiot who deserved to loose.”
“Micheal that's just about all the time we have left, would like like to give any final thoughts on your return to the XWF before we sign off?”
“Yeah I'll give a final thought. Michael, I'm sure this will get to you one way or the other. I want you to know something. You said that your story was far from over, but you're wrong. I may be older and I may be rusty, but the more I think about what you've shown us since joining XWF, the more I realize that I have nothing to fear from you. I'm going to ensure that your story in the XWF not only ends at Wildcard, but is dead and buried with you!”
“Micheal, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. Good luck December 9th at Wildcard Weekend.”
“Thank you Jim”
“Up next, we'll be discussing Steelers running back Karlos Williams ten game suspension.”
The shadowy figure stubs his cigarette out and reaches over, turning off the radio. Who is this man, and what interest does he have with Micheal Graves?
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